Chapter 41: Chapter 41

FOURTY - MR FRED

Three weeks and everything seemed back to normal.normal as in; dozie was back to school, I hung out more with my 'squad', Uju had decided to channel her attention to her studies and most importantly we all wrote the jamb exams including dozie.

Our results were commendable. I got a score of 270 and I already filled in to study music at unilag, it was crazy to mum cause she frowned and frowned about my choice but that was me trying to live my dream and nevertheles, she was still supportive besides that score is pretty high for music; says mum.

sandwich scored 258. She was going for English language too in unilag, sophie had 269 for human anatomy in uniben, sola was 298, for software engineering in Oau, Ayo had 295-pychology, priye had 276- nursing, Adam had 288 for law while dozie had 280 and had refused to disclose his course or his choice of institution.

No matter how hard I tried asking him.the blockhead just knew exactly how to be stubborn. Anyway now that we were done with Jamb and almost starting our waec in a weeks time, we already handed over our prefect badges but Osaro and I were still going to coordinate the last social night for this year.

" is anyone one of you douche interested in participating at all?"I asked the 'squad'.holding a piece of paper high above my head

" after calling us a douche Abi? " ayo mocked and I snickered

" I'm in jhare..I will like to show off how to make an app-" sola said excitedly making some of us scrunch our face in dismay

" sola it's a talent hunt we're doing and not learning rocket science" Annette said as she rolled her eyes

"Joor do you know jow many people wish to own their own app? At least my own sef is educational"she argued and i shrugged in sheer agreement

"Dozie are you in for the talent hunt?"I asked expectantly

"Depends sha..."

"give a definite answer nah"

"what exactly is dozie going to do?"sophie asked

I raised my eyebrows at her.did she just ask that? Anyway, "he's going to be painting a sculpture under a specific time.let's say five minutes" I answered

"No way!" She gasped in disbelief "I mean..is that even possible?"

"of fucking course it is..especially in dozie's case" I deadpan making sola roll her eyes at me

" language!!!" She said sternly and I gave a low hiss

"For someone who didn't mind being kissed in public by her boyfriend shouldn't be talking about language" sandwich reprimanded, looking everywhere else apart from sola

"That was in a movie theater not in a school " sola snapped turning to priye, she cooed

"Baby back me up on this". Priye cleared his throat somewhat nosily before turning to us before throwing an affectionate smile at sola

"Sola's is right..besides the movie theater was dark and I doubt if a handful of people would care about two hormonal teenagers making out" he replied and I burst out laughing alongside with the guys apart from sola who was scowling and sandwich who still shook her head in disagreement

"That was still in public" sandwich argued

"oya let's drop it...afterall it would do me no good to filing this memo here" I interjected, holding the piece of paper for all to see

" did you write my name as one of those in the eating competition?" Sandwich asked

"How come that's where we'll find you?" Adam asked teasingly and she scoffed

"Like you have something more important"

"Excuse you but I'm doing a rap contest" he sneered proudly

"Very interesting isn't it?"she asked rhetorically with a grim smile making Adam raise his eyebrow at her

"So Adam knows how to rap?"sophie asked to a particular no one

"I'm just finding out" I replied and sola concurred

"More interesting" sandwich said in a bored tone making the rest of us eye her suspiciously.she seemed not to be suprised as the rest of us

"what's so surprising about that info anyway?" Priye asked

"It's surprising because we just found out" sophie replied

"You girls  don't know much about that douche..it's not your fault anyway" dozie said and we chuckled

I shook my head and turned to dozie "abi you're still interested..sha you don't have a choice" I quickly added and he smirked

"I'm not making any promises" i flash him a stink eye before giving him the paper and the pen

"You don't have to make promises...it's an order" I deadpan and ayo exclaimed

"Mad ooh" I shot him a glare which caused him to shut his mouth, using his hands to run as a zipper across it

"sign your name here anyway" I said and he chuckled, entwining the pen in between his index finger and pinning it's blue ink on the white paper, he got to business

" Ayo! " I called at him who had begun talking randomly with priye and Adam. More like arguing about something intangible to me right now.

"what my dearest friend" he answered with a mock bow

"Sign your name here for talent hunt.shebi you can dance? " I asked and he took the ink with a huge smirk on his lips

" if I crash your event with my dancestep don't blame me " he said and I eyed him

" if you try it, you'll just limp back to your house with heavy muscle pull "I retort and he scrunched his nose up prolly trying hard not to imagine the pain making the rest of the squad laugh

"Omo fiesty...you should work in the military"Adam said in a suggestive tone

I stretched my lips in a small sinister smile as I retort "it's my pleasure sir, being the first person i'll discipline once I join the military"  he looked at me with a frost expression making dozie guffaw at him before placing his hands on his shoulder

"Chill..it's just a threat"

"Just a threat?was that supposed to make him feel better?" Sola asked and we all laughed

"You guys are crazy sha" Ayo added as we laughed it off

"Who's going to be the DJ?" Sophie asked out of sheer curiosity

"who else if not priye" I replied, turning to priye who nodded with a lopsided smile. He really enjoyed being a DJ apart from burying his attention to books and Sola- which isn't something bad

I looked down at my list of activities for the social night.the girls all had something interesting to join in and even the guys but my list was still empty which made me wince in disappointment. I already made a mental note to announce to other students about it

*click*

I looked up at the sound of the camera clicking with my lips in between my teeth and a small crease furrowing on my eyebrows. Dozie was holding his blue-ish phone-pouched camera to my face.I didn't know if it was his phone or mine since we had matching phone pouch.

I pouted "seriously!?"

"It's for my talent hunt painting prolly the last that I will do sef " he replied, mumbling the last part to himself which I clearly heard

I shot my face up to look at him "what does that mean"

"Nothing!" He quickly replied before springing up from where he sat together with with the guys

My intuition told me that he had something up he was hiding from me.something he didn't want to tell me but something I must find out anytime soon.

Since the guys were already gone, I was left with the girls who were chattering amongst themselves.I would have asked what they were discussing but right now I really needed to catch up something

"Babes..see you later" I called out as I stood up, straightening my skirt out.

"Are you going to class?"sandwhich asked and i nod

"More like to make an announcement..about yunno" i replied gesturing to the paper as the shrugged in understanding before waving ourselves a see you later greeting as I walked out to SS3A

The class was a bit scanty because most of the students were in the library, I turned to the few people in class.

"Announcement everyone!" I called to get the few people's attention.when I was satisfied that they had fixed their gaze at me, I began.

"If you guys want to participate in the social night activities, kindly pen down your name on my list or you go to Osaro to sign you up and by the way you can always come to my class to pen your names down but don't come when I'm reading" I announced then added

"- for the sake of your mental health cos I'll vex for you..also tell your other classmates about it" I concluded.the class were already getting super-excited about the upcoming event besides it was normal since everyone looked forward to that day.

besides I had already given the date what was left was me having to entertain different most of the time annoying questions about the social night example one crazy girl had to ask me

Where the venue was ?  And my sacarstic mouth quickly retorted "in Buckingham palace"  was she on cheap weed to ask me that foolish question?where else  would the venue be if not in the school hall.

As if that question wasn't stupid enough, Edmond! Some crazed pervert asked

" would there be strippers..as per..make the social night more fun" he suggested with a stupid wink making me blink my eyes repeatedly

Apparently there were more idiots in this class than I had ever thought in my life.

I plastered a sweet-too-sweet smile on my face before replying gently "would any of your sisters volunteer to be strippers for just one night?" I asked with grim sweetness

His face turned pale making his earlier excited expression drain swiftly in flushed up embarrassment at my sweet reply

Figuring that there was no need for me to remain in that class answering foolish questions, I made my way out of there

"Umm..Meera!" A calm voice called me, i spurned around to meet the owner of the voice.turned out to be victor one of the few sensible guy left in this class

" yes dear" I replied sweetly

I really don't know the reason for my sweet response tho

" do you mind if I help set up the hall?"he asked with a small hopeful smile

Oh my! What a soul maybe that's why I was smiling sweetly

I smiled back "sure..why not" I replied before walking out, drowning the thank you he said behind me as I walked into my own class.

*******

I got home extremely exhausted about today.i just wanted to plant myself on my bed and sleep out my realities before any other thing when I realized in the verandah that the number of slippers lying there were much more than the actual and that meant only one thing.

Mr fred was here again

I groaned at the thought of it. Every time he came around, mum didn't look pleased neither Uju nor kelechi and I totally don't get why he kept showing his unwanted self. I was about stomping into the house to give him a piece of my you-are-not-welcomed-here speech when I heard shouts, no argument coming from inside. On impulse, I decided to eavesdrop rather than barging in and ordering him out of our house

I etched in further, leaning my ears against the door when I heard mum shout furiously

"- and she is not your daughter! I have told you several times Fred.you can't just waltz in here and try jeopardizing our family"

Was mr fred serious right now? Who did he think was his daughter

"Anna..I am not trying to jeopardize your life..I'm just trying to let my daughter know she has a father" he said rather too calmly and this time mum didn't protest about her name being Amaka not Anna

It made me curious about this whole thing

" her father!" She scoffed "a father who wasn't there for his daughter all through her seventeen years and now you remember that you have a daughter!" She yelled

"Yes Anna! You know it wasn't my intention to disappear into thin air. I was in jail" he said with jis voice slightly raised

"And that is the reason why you shouldn't get close to her!"mum yelled soberly

"- all this years I had told her that her dad was dead..how could I let an ex convict Now you want to come close to her and you think she'd be happy to see what a man that you are?!" She sniffed

"  you didn't have to lie to her.Anna!" He paused briefly "I also deserve to be part of her life...you and I know that I didn't intend to abandon her so please Anna..." he pleaded while mum sniffed

" go away fred..even Uju and kelechi don't accept you as their father how the hell did you think Meera was?" She asked in a whisper as she sobbed

"Leave it to me Anna...she's still my daughter and she deserves to have a father figure in her life.."

"And she has been doing well without a father figure in her life fred. So just get the hell out of my house and try not to show up here if you care about your daughter" mum yelled sharply.

I leaned dumbstruck on the door, holding my hands close to my chest.I was totally shocked..infact, I was getting scared.

Was mr fred really my father? Did mum lie to me all this why? Did Uju and kelechi know already about this? Why didn't she want to tell me?

I swallowed my gulp hard.my heartbeat erratically beating as I panted heavily. Hitting my palms gently on my chest to calm myself down.a small streak of tears trodded down my cheeks, I didn't even realize I had been crying.

I slowly wipped my tears with the back of my hands. I was going to pretend not to have heard a thing.walk in and act like nothing happened

No.walk in and act like I didn't hear a single damn thing

Lord knows how long I chanted the act-like-nothing-happened before pulling the door knob.

I gently walked in, abit causing them to get startled. Mum immediately sprang up to her feet together with mr Fred, the both looked so anxious and worried

I glanced at Mr fred briefly before turning my attention to mum as I greeted  "good afternoon ma" I said and she smiled tightly

"How was school dear?"

I mustered a tight smile at her before replying flatly "fine" then I resumed going to my room while battling with my subconscious if to ask my mum to explain what I just heard or just act like nothing happened

Calm down meera.

Walk to your room and act like you heard nothing - my subconscious chanted

Why acting like you heard nothing when you clearly heard everything? Right now ask her why she's been lying to you all this while ? Ask her all the questions you wish and that hold any back

You deserve to know the truth. -my other subconscious argued

It really made sense and for a second I contemplated doing as it said when the other voice chanted again

Act like you heard nothing meera ..you can do it

Infact, you know what!? Fuck it. I was already exhausted today anf this inner battle was'nt helping besides I really needed answers to this question brewing in my head so I paused involuntarily in my step as I turned to mum, shooting her a glare. I found my voice asking

"Is mr Fred my father? Mum."

"What are..what are you talking about?"She stuttered, chuckling nervously

Was she seriously going to pretend like she's oblivious to what I was asking cause if that was her plans.I'm so sure that she knew it was failing woefully cause that minute,I shot her my best glare.

A glare that on any other day she would have spanked me or either reprimanded me for looking at her that way.

I ignored her question. Turning my attention meet with mr Fred who seemed uncomfortable with the unfolding situation. That was okay, cause mum too was feeling so uncomfortable and so was I.

But I needed clarifications.I needed to confirm if all I heard wasn't just me daydreaming

"Tell me honestly.." I paused briefly, directing my question to mr fred

"Are you my father?"

Mum immediately walked closer to me in shaky agitated steps.she gulped down hard before opening her mouth to interrupt mr fred

"--I"

"Meera honey..you should go and rest now. School must have been a whole stressful"

"mum!" I yelled in mortification which seemed to snap her gaze at me

"Meera what is wrong with you? How can you even have such thoughts that mr fred is your father.." she asked in exasperation which did no justice to the rising anger which was bubbling inside me

"Maybe it's high time we told her the.."mr fred tried butting in when mum shot him an icy gaze

"Tell her what? Please fred just leave now" mum snapped making me roll my eyes at her

" Just tell me the truth mum...I'm not a child besides I heard everything so stop lying to me!!" I yelled angrily causing mum to look at me wide-eyed

She sighed in resignation, throwing herself tiredly on the couch. her eyebrows were creased in a troubled frown.she slumped her shoulders tiredly before opening her mouth to speak. when the door flung open.revealing kelechi and Uju walk inside the house.

Kelechi's gaze travelled from me to mum then to mr fred and in a matter of seconds, his fist was balled up in rage and his eyes were suddenly turned cold.he gritted his teeth as he quickly rushed towards fred to grace his face with a huge punch making mum yell frantically while Uju quickly rushed to pull him away from mr fred who was holding his jaws in pain

A small scoff escaped my lips as I stared at the little scene unfolding.i wasn't in the least finding any of this entertaining and kelechi's harsh reaction wasn't the best answers I needed now.

"Calm down all of you!!" Mum yelled with a tired and worn out expression.

"What in the blazes is this man doing in our house?"kelechi thundered. My gaze flickered over to mum in a pleading manner. She was wiping the tears that had already started to fall like torrents on her cheeks

"I said calm down first!!!" She repeated in exasperation which made me sigh in more in a whirl of confusion.

"Is this a fucking joke?" I yelled impatiently not minding my language.apparently, no one minded cause this situation was getting frustrating

"someone tell me what on earth is happening?! How does kelechi and uju know who mr Fred is? why did mum have to lied to me about my father..just tell me already" small sobs escaped my lips as I spoke

For a moment everyone was silent as if our breath was paused.the only sounds that could be heard was from the fan which took the opportunity of the lull to remind of that we were still breathing.

"mr fred maybe you should leave us alone for now" Uju started softly, throwing a glance at me as if seeking my permission.

I ignored her, watching mr Fred stand up with a pained expression.somehow i really didn't know who to feel sorry for.was it me who was lied to about being fatherless all these years or Mr fred who was watching his family unpleasantly shove him out of their lives.

He walked unsteadily towards me.crouching down to my eye level he was quite tall, a tallness which was hooded in the outdated clothes he wore. I brought my gaze to meet with his sad own.his expression was like that of one who was completely abashed and apologetic as he placed his hands to rest lightly on my shoulders.

"I'm sorry Meera" he quavered. trying hard to keep his voice still yet failing terribly at it

"I'm sorry causing all this trouble...I never meant to stay away from your lives...I.."he sucked in sharp breath trying not to let out a sob

I didn't even know what to say in the least.I was scared and yet angry about this whole thing.without one more glance at anyone, I spurned around to my room, slamming the door shut behind me.

*******

I sat curled up in my room till dusk still trying to wrap my head around what just happened now.Uju hadn't stepped into the room since and so was mum and kelechi.I heard mum telling them to let me be and honestly I needed that.

But I was still angry at her, I was angry at my siblings. I mean we've lived together for 17years of my existence yet they had lied blatantly to my face without even considering me.it wasn't fair, it wasn't just right.

A small tear streaked down my cheeks. I used my back hands to wipe it off when i heard soft knock on the door.I didn't bother to open it or even see who the person was until a soft push jerked the door open and there stood mum in all her glory with a puffy and swollen face

Had she been crying? I definitely don't care right now

she gently walked towards my bed.sitting quietly at the edge of it before pausing the silence which roamed around us for sometime

"Ulunne !" She called me softly. Ulunne was what every second daughter in igboland was called.

I ignored her, my gaze far lost in the picturesque on the walls of my room.she sighed deeply, taking my left palms into hers as she stroked them gently.

I quickly withdrew my palms, folding them inside the bedsheets and still not looking at her. But I could hear her suck in s sharp breath

"Are you ready to tell me what's going on?"my voice sounded more icily than I intended.she didn't reply immediately instead she kept sobbing and muttering how sorry she was for keeping this away from me.

"Mum..i'll tell her" Uju cut into her sobs.I didn't even realize she had walked into the room until I raised her eyes to see her and a disheveled kelechi standing closely beside me.

mum shook her head negatively "no..I'll explain" she replied, wiping her teary eyes.

Everyone waited in silence as mum started telling us how everything began and why she decided to keep it from me..

"your dad and I had problems...we usually fought most of the time...it made him come back home dead drunk...that time Uju was three and kelechi was just five so at least they got to know who their father was" she paused briefly

"You were a year old when your dad was thrown into jail for manslaughter...he was accused of drunk driving which caused the death of one lady.."she crumbled into more sobs

Uju was using her hands to rub mum soothingly on her shoulders while kelechi stared blankly into space as he sat on my reading chair

" I didn't want to have anything to do with your dad again..so ..I had to divorce him...I didn't even want him to come close to you so i changed my name and relocated to this address..."

Wow! I didn't even know we had a former house

"When you started asking questions about your dad.." she sobbed louder "I didn't want to tell you that your dad was in jail..I did it so you won't feel bad and ask alot of questions.."

I scoffed loudly "so telling me that my dad was dead was the best way to make me feel better huh!?" I asked sacarstically

"Meera..I think what mum is trying to say is that she just didn't want you to feel ashamed about the fact that dad killed someone" Uju quickly added

"That still doesn't give y'all the right to lie to me and decieve me all this while."

"she did it for you!!" Kelechi replied and for once in a cool and softly voice which didn't help in the tension that was roaming around the air

"No! That's an excuse for her being selfish" I snapped at him

"Meera that's not fair!"Uju retorted in a hurtful tone

"Well I'm the one who wasn't treated fairly here just because of mum's own..."

"Can you listen to yourself for a second?"Uju yelled in anger while kelechi this time tried to calm her down.mum was still a sobbing mess

"Now you've seen your father what has changed? Haven't you been living well enough even without him here?" she asked with a note of annonyance laced in her tone

I scoffed in disbelief "wow! That's what you can say huh?! Maybe Uju if you didn't think you needed a father in your life, I did!cause I always wished for one not knowing that I had the one person but i never knew cause I had liars living with me under the same roof and lying to my face about everything" I spat angrily at her

"You two should take it easy..." kelechi interrupted but was cut short by Uju's humorless laughter

"Well we may have lied to you and you have done a great job to judge all of us here so how about you?!.." she started saying calmly

"Even when we told you that dad had died, did you for once in your 17years ask how he died?"she threw the question at me and paused as if waiting for a reply

Which in reply I said nothing, what should I have said? She was right this time..I never asked any questions

"Yea you didn't.." she continued "so don't sit there and judge us like we are the worst set of individuals in life cause the truth is, even if dad was still in jail you still wouldn't want to associate with him alright! " she spat

I was panting heavily, tears were pouring round my face like waterfalls as i glared at her coldly.how could she say all this things? Was I that of a terrible person as I thought mum to be? Or like I even thought any of them to be?

I grabbed my phone from the bed in mortification without bothering to reply her as I walked out of the room and drowning the voice of mum and kelechi who kept calling out to me as I slammed the door shut.

~~~~~~~

I kept scrolling through my contact list to search for dozie's contact.right now he was the only person that came to my mind.I was sad, hurt infact I didn't just know what to do and i just needed someone to cry on and there couldn't be think of any person other than him.with the tears blinding my vision i scrolled and scrolled through the contact

I graoned out aloud when I couldn't find his name on my phone instead contacts of people I couldn't even remember saving in my phone so I dumped the phone angrily.

running my hands through my hair in frustration as I tried taking calm breaths before I picked the phone up again

I turned on the screen and there was a picture of dozie and I wearing matching outfit and showing off dentals to the camera.a small smile tugged at the corners of my lips when I just realized that I wasn't even holding my damn phone.

This was dozie's phone rather and since we both had the same phone pouch, we may have switched it earlier today when we sat together in school.so I tried looking for what he saved my name as since I figured that he was prolly the one with my phone

There was no 'm' not to talk of a meera and it made me wonder what he actually saved my name as. I decided to fashy it and just dial my my no on the keypad which ended up showing itself as,

'Chin chin❤'

A huge smile graced my teary face.it was funny how I felt better even without him being here. I quickly called the no. and after two rings he picked up

"Pervert! That was what you saved my name as huh?!" He snorted playfully at the background which made me chuckle

"You saved mine as chin chin.."I retort, wiping the sobs off my face which I guessed rightly that he noticed

"Have you been crying chin chin?"he asked in a worried whisper.I nodded my head negatively and when I realized that he wasn't even there I had to answer but the words wouldn't just come out

"Meera where are you?!" He asked frantically

I was some miles away from home so I told him and in a matter of minutes i could literally see him running towards me like someone whose wife was in labor.he drew me into a bone-crushing hug,

Hugging me like his life depended on it and frankly I needed that bone-crushing hug cause I was hurt.was it what Uju said to me which I feared may actually be true or the anger of having been lied to? Infact I don't even know which one made me sad. I just needed to cry out my eyes on dozie's shoulders and afterwards fall asleep like today never happened

And you can guess, I actually did fall asleep on dozie's shoulders but the thing of pretending that today never happened, I doubt if it could ever be possible.